Personally I'm hoping they stay away from a live action idea and go rather into the CGI style purely because they'll be able to deliver a better feel in terms of how things should look, perfect examples here would be: Warhammer 4000 Space Marines, Mass Effect Paragon Lost, Final Fantasy The Spirits Within, Final Fantasy Advent Children just to name the most obvious, there are a few more obscure ones but these help my point better.

This would also mean they have less restrictions on what *Can* and *Can't* be done realistically without needing to compromise any of the lore and game play style we've come to enjoy over the years. I know some films that have come out of the gaming world haven't done too badly i.e Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, Mario Brothers, which on their own were more platform based without any real huge background or lore to support them unlike WoW which currently has Vanilla followed by 4 expansions all of which have their own history's, lore and story spread through several novels as well as specific story lines that have in some cases been expanded in the game.

Can't really add Resident Evil to this as it's kind of grown on it's own although the latest one (Retribution) could of been so much more then your simple *We must clone/bring back Alice so she can kick the crap out of everything again* scenario, but to be fair there are books supporting most of what went into the film before and after production of the initial cinema release in 2002.

But Resident Evil and similarly Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit don't have half the races that make up even half of one faction i.e Horde/Alliance. Does this mean when it comes to WoW that we'll have to miss out seeing many of the races because they can't afford such a budget to hire that many people to cover all the basic races? How about mounts both ground and flying, how about pets and companions, I know of course this kinds of things would most likely be animatronics but why make a simple job harder just so you can cast a specific role with a big budget actor when having people do the voices etc would workout so much more appealing to the viewing public in general.

As the OP has already stated, a lot of us (myself included) have been waiting many years for this, ever since I saw the first cinematic upon launching WoW back in vanilla, I thought this could be a really cool concept if ever taken to the big screen, even more so now when you look at MoP's initial trailer and how the Horde/Alliance land on the isle of Pandaria. The smoothness in which things are now being rendered is so much better then it was back in 2004 when this all started and so having a bunch of actors come along playing the roles would just ruin the experience.

This is all just my personal opinion but it's been formed since the day I first started playing and has only gotten stronger in this particular view as the years have gone on and I've seen how other games/books/comics have been hashed together like Dungeons and Dragons in the hopes of just bringing in a bigger audience due to a celebrity name rather then the story itself and it's own merits.

Hell if done as CGI not only would it be legend... Wait for it... DARY! But it could become quite an awesome series when you consider how many books of lore there actually are currently:

These books were published using the WARCRAFT trademark.
Original Series

1. Day of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak
2. Lord of the Clans by Christie Golden
3. The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb
Of Blood and Honor by Chris Metzen (unnumbered, not technically a novel)

Despite being clearly numbered, The Last Guardian is set years before either Day of the Dragon or Lord of the Clans. These novels can be read in any order, as all contain spoilers for the events of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.
War of the Ancients

The Well of Eternity
The Demon Soul
The Sundering
All by Richard A. Knaak

Though acting as a prequel to the events of all Warcraft games and novels, this trilogy involves characters from Day of the Dragon traveling through time, and thus has spoilers for that novel and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Though reading Day of the Dragon and Reign of Chaos are helpful for understanding events and characters, they are not required.
WoW imprint

The following novels were published under the WORLD OF WARCRAFT trademark (this is the publication order):

Cycle of Hatred by Keith R. A. DeCandido
Rise of the Horde by Christie Golden
Tides of Darkness by Aaron Rosenberg
Beyond the Dark Portal by Aaron Rosenberg & Christie Golden
Night of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak
Arthas: Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden
Stormrage by Richard A. Knaak
The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm by Christie Golden
Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects by Christie Golden
Wolfheart by Richard A. Knaak
Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War by Christie Golden

In spite of the trademark and the slogan "based on the best-selling video game", most of these books are not set during the events of World of Warcraft. Cycle of Hatred is set in between Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and WoW; Rise of the Horde, though told through a series of flashbacks just prior to World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, is set almost a century earlier; Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal relate the events of the Second War. Night of the Dragon is set prior to the events of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and reveals the current state of the black dragonflight, and Stormrage is set after the defeat of the Lich King but shortly before those of Cataclysm. World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm also takes place between Wrath and Cataclysm. Rise of the Lich King deals with the events of the Third War. Twilight of the Aspects takes place during the events of Cataclysm

Chronological order: Tides of Darkness, Beyond the Dark Portal, Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, Cycle of Hatred, Night of the Dragon, Stormrage and World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm. Rise of the Horde is set before all of these, but takes the form of an extended flashback (from just before the beginning of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade), so it could be argued to be read between Cycle of Hatred and Night of the Dragon.
Chronological order

Rise of the Horde[1]

First War (Warcraft: Orcs and Humans)

The Last Guardian

Second War (Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness)

Tides of Darkness
Day of the Dragon

Invasion of Draenor (Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal)

Beyond the Dark Portal
Lord of the Clans

Third War (Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne)

War of the Ancients 1: The Well of Eternity[2]
War of the Ancients 2: The Demon Soul[2]
War of the Ancients 3: The Sundering[2]
Cycle of Hatred

(World of Warcraft)

Rise of the Horde[1]

(WoW: The Burning Crusade)

Night of the Dragon
Arthas: Rise of the Lich King[3]

(WoW: Wrath of the Lich King)

Stormrage
The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm

(WoW: Cataclysm)

Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects
Wolfheart
Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War

the thing that will POSSIBLY save the WoW movie from the pitfall of other video game based movies is 1, they are working very closely with blizz, and blizzard call their writing staff a bunch of pinheads w/e, but they are also approving what goes on in the script, which to me anyway is a good sign. that and what kind of story do you want to tell a revenge epic? a fantasy war movie? an action adventure? seriously just need it to be set in the WoW universe and it would work. at the very least not bend it over a barrel and shove various objects up it's ass.

2015? Holy shit, that's like a decade too late. Who's going to watch it at that point? The at that point 4-5 million core players (here excluding trial accounts, people owning more than 1 account, and those who plays on and off)?
Do they expect the 30-40 million players who previously played WoW with all the sweet memories but now nothing but hatred left for Blizzard for ruining the game at XXX point in time to all go watch the movie? What about all the CoD, Fifa and LoL teenage gamers who know nothing about MMOs and RPG? Or everyone else who have nothing but stereotypes left for those who plays/used to play WoW...? Does Blizzard really expect themselves to be able convince these type of people to come watch their WoW movie, a concept that slowly lost its appeal for everyone outside of the game by the death of the Lich King.

I'm sorry to say this, but unless it becomes a huge sucess then I doubt it will sell well. And if it becomes a huge sucess then I don't think it is the fact that it is based off WoW that made it a sucess in the first place.
If it becomes a sucess its going to revive whats left of WoW in 2015. If its going to become a failure Blizzard and WoW is just going to be laughing stock by non-Wow players.

Personally I'll probably watch it, together with people whom I've previously played WoW with. Hopefully it will become a succes in the cinemas of the US so we can actually have a cinematic release here in Denmark as well.

2015? Holy shit, that's like a decade too late. Who's going to watch it at that point? The at that point 4-5 million core players (here excluding trial accounts, people owning more than 1 account, and those who plays on and off)?
Do they expect the 30-40 million players who previously played WoW with all the sweet memories but now nothing but hatred left for Blizzard for ruining the game at XXX point in time to all go watch the movie? What about all the CoD, Fifa and LoL teenage gamers who know nothing about MMOs and RPG? Or everyone else who have nothing but stereotypes left for those who plays/used to play WoW...? Does Blizzard really expect themselves to be able convince these type of people to come watch their WoW movie, a concept that slowly lost its appeal for everyone outside of the game by the death of the Lich King.

I'm sorry to say this, but unless it becomes a huge sucess then I doubt it will sell well. And if it becomes a huge sucess then I don't think it is the fact that it is based off WoW that made it a sucess in the first place.
If it becomes a sucess its going to revive whats left of WoW in 2015. If its going to become a failure Blizzard and WoW is just going to be laughing stock by non-Wow players.

Personally I'll probably watch it, together with people whom I've previously played WoW with. Hopefully it will become a succes in the cinemas of the US so we can actually have a cinematic release here in Denmark as well.

WoW =/= Warcraft Universe. And I'm sure most of the ppl who quit would be interested in the movie, since most quit because of "modern gameplay".

Thats what Tull said. They tend to be bad because the game doesnt have a good story to tell! Back in early 90s there was no Mass Effects too. Thats what was the problems then ! But in case of Warcraft movie we have VAST Story on which several Series of Warcraft movie can be taken ! And OFC we have great Mass Effects with 3D effects !

There were Final Fantasy IIIs and Chrono Triggers and Planescape: Torments and Phantasy Stars in the early 90's.

Yeah, but Super Mario doesn't have the lore that the Warcraft world does. There are so many cool things they could grab from the story. If it were me, I would go with Arthas. Why? Because it's a helluva story. People that haven't played a minute of wow would find it cool because it's a fascinating storyline, and the people that have played the game would likely get a thrill out of seeing Arthas on the big screen. I would at least.

I just have to stop you all right here. I'm gonna let all you guys talking bout Mortal Kombat, Doom, Street Fighter and Double Dragon finish.

But I gotta say that Super Mario Brothers was one of the best movies of all time.

The casting, was perfect. I could not make a better choice if I tried. See the Mario cartoon for examples of bad casting.
The story, an edge masterpiece that warped the happy go lucky mushroom kingdom into something worthwhile. You have to give credit for taking something with 0 story and covering all its bases in a meaningful way in an interesting fleshed out environment.
The effects, (Koopa's transformation aside....) it was dark, cool looking, I loved the goombas, and the fungus what an awesome reimagining of the fairy tale "mushroom kingdom".

I hope they don't change the story or mess a certain aspect up. Remember, just like a book, they can't add everything into a movie. But many director's tend to change big pieces of what made the book amazing!

I cried alone every single night. It felt like every day that passed here stole another piece of my real life away. After i cried, I’d go and fight as hard as I could. My only thought was winning, moving forward, and getting stronger. — Asuna Yuuki

I guess doom wasn't THAT bad. All I know is if the main antagonist whoever it may be doesn't use the words "merely a setback" by the halfway point, I'm throwing my popcorn at the screen and leaving in a blaze of fury.

Eh it would be nice if it is ACTUALLY made. WoW has great lore to work off of, so if they made a movie I think I would easily be able to watch it and enjoy it as long as it doesn't suck. Good luck to the film, it is a tough role to try and make something good out of a video game based franchise as history has shown so..

LOL @ all you sads that are cutting themselves thinking the movie will be terrible. You'll all be the first ones to see it.

It wont fail, It cant. There is so much riding on the success of this movie and while wow has over 8 million subscribers there are near a billion other people that don't play that im pretty sure would enjoy this movie not knowing a thing about its lore.

You can bet your money on the fact that they will line up a few wow movies ( Fast and Furious/Harry potter anyone? ). There will be hundreds of script changes and revisions to make sure its perfect.

Wow is currently losing subscribers and fast, this was all timed from the beginning. Why release movies when their subscribers are going so well?. They had plenty of time to make a movie back in the day. Instead they release the movies when subscriptions are dropping to entice more people back plus new ones as one giant glorified marketing campaign ( lets not forget wow is an MMORPG ) and while movies get revenue instantly and from a larger pool of people, subscribers will generate more profit in the long run.

They have got this nailed and sorted. I'm not concerned the slightest and am very optimistic for a great succession of movies to come. Provided the director isn't some alien obsessed nutjob like George Lucas... wow should be fine.

Am I the only one who actually enjoys the Mario Bros movie? Not one of my favorites, but I still enjoy it.

I enjoyed it for what it's worth. I have it on dvd. It's just...not a good movie. That said, there's nothing wrong with enjoying oneself while watching movies that aren't good. Not every film can be Citizen Kane.